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Secret document spells out Tories’ campaign

Tories were ready to pounce if May’s provincial budget went down to defeat.

A draft Tory campaign plan leaked to the Star provides daily talking points and events designed to put party leader Tim Hudak's struggling popularity into the best possible light. (Dave Chidley / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

A secret Tory election campaign blueprint obtained by the Star features Doug Ford and a hard right anti-union agenda.

The day-to-day itinerary for Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak was prepared in the event the minority Liberal government’s May 2 budget was defeated, setting the stage for a spring provincial general election.

In some ways it echoes the 1995 Mike Harris Common Sense Revolution campaign complete with “tax cuts create jobs,” “reducing the size of government,” and spoiling for a fight with teachers.

This kind of document — which a party source described as “not a final writ calendar” — is usually a closely guarded secret available to about three people.

The draft campaign plan, which was leaked to the Star, provides insight into the Tories’ thinking with daily talking points and events designed to put Hudak’s struggling popularity into the best possible light.

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Everything is scripted down the minute.

Even time for schmoozing with reporters is set aside with double asterisks: “Have Tim drive back to Toronto part way on the media bus and have some beers.” And then there is Hudak having his photo taken with soccer moms, playing cards with seniors and riding in a traffic helicopter.

The featured rally on day one of the campaign was to be at the Etobicoke North Tory campaign office where outspoken Toronto city councillor Doug Ford, the brother of the now disgraced Mayor Rob Ford, was expected to be the “star” candidate.

Even after the recent events at City Hall, with the mayor admitting that he smoked crack, Hudak is not ruling out having Doug Ford run for the Tories in the next election, which could come as early as the spring.

“Our plan and our ideas have been out there for some time and the sooner we get at getting Ontario back on track the better it’s going to be for all of us,” Hudak told reporters Wednesday.

The Tories have released 14 policy papers but to date have refused to say which ones they will take into an election. The documents clearly show the attack on organized labour is front and centre.

The leader’s itinerary focuses mainly on ridings outside Toronto where the party believes it has the best chance of ousting the governing Liberals

Six days into the campaign, Hudak was to share the spotlight in Ottawa with Jim Flaherty, the federal finance minister and former Tory MPP. Topic: balancing the budget. Then he was to be back in Toronto getting ready for the next day’s platform release at the Economic Club of Canada.

The party’s direction the next day in Windsor becomes very clear with the heading “Fixing Labour Laws” and a Hudak appearance at a non-union factory, the kind of visit that is repeated as the campaign progresses.

One of the party’s many party policy papers calls for getting rid of the Rand Formula, which requires all employees in a closed union shop to pay dues whether they join or not. Coincidentally, Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ivan Rand introduced the formula in 1946 as a result of the 1945 Ford strike in Windsor.

A similar message — Allow Choice in Union Membership — was on the agenda again just a few days later in Guelph and the Kitchener-Waterloo areas, which fuels fears that Hudak’s agenda is to turn Ontario into a right-to-work province, similar to several U.S. states.

Among the other controversial polices put forward, according to the leaked itinerary, was proposed merit pay for teachers, which Hudak has said will reward outstanding teachers.

And with just three days before the election, Hudak planned to spell out what a Progressive Conservative government would do in the first 100 days. Again, there were no details.

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